How do I make the same embarrassing mistake at the same store one week later? (You guessed it — I left one of my packages at the counter again, and the poor, beleaguered, young cashier had to run out after the confused old guy with it.)
It’s like a humiliating glitch in The Matrix.
There is just something about Virginia skies, even during a frigid March day.
That antiquated building you see is the historic Hotel Roanoke, the original iteration of which was erected in 1882 (before being rebuilt).
Looking south and west from above Shenandoah Avenue.
Facing Shenandoah Avenue. 2026.
The building was originally constructed at the start of the 20th Century as office space for Norfolk & Western Railroad.
The building on the corner is 8 North Jefferson Street.
Looking south.
That’s right — the legendary tome saw its 40th anniversary last month. (I’ve always had the habit of referring to its graphic novel format, but of course it was initially published as a four-issue limited series.)
Forty years — I can’t wrap my mind around that.
For a little perspective, imagine being a young person in 1986 and discovering The Dark Knight Returns for the first time. (I myself was introduced to it a few years down the line, but still.) Now picture an older comics fan in 1986 trying to interest you in a title that was published 40 years prior.
THAT COMIC WOULD HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN 1946 — a year after the conclusion of World War II. It would have to be a title like Tintin or the Mark Trail comic strip.
Damn, we’re old.
Three score blackbirds alight a winter tree,
soundless on the leafless limbs in quiet company.
In lines of silent, sable flames, they ignite to spy
me with curiosity and six score eyes.
(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2026
Photo credit: Donald F. Mott, 2021
Avian altercation! A chirpity-chirpity ruckus erupted at my fifth floor windowsill this morning … two sparrows were biting and plucking at a third. The aggressors had darker head coloring; the victim’s was lighter — I’m guessing this means it was either a female or a juvenile?
I tapped the glass pretty hard, and the bad birds took off. Then this beleaguered bird-twerp hung out for a minute and actually looked at me as if in acknowledgment. (Yeah, the picture quality is cruddy, but you can see the little fluff-nugget looking at me.)
I started searching my memory for a bird-themed superhero I could then proclaim myself to be … but both Marvel’s “Falcon” and Michael Keaton’s “Birdman” (2014) seemed fairly lame. My girlfriend, who is ever more cultured than I am, invoked Walt Whitman instead:
“I sound my barbaric ‘YAWP’ over the roofs of the world!!!”
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 